It would be amusing, were it not so pathetic—as the cliché goes—to watch the pundit class attempt to explain the rise of Donald Trump. No doubt, Trump is populist, but these analysts fail to recognize one very basic fact: Trump is a pissed-off rich guy financing his own populist campaign, and, as such, there has never been anyone like him in American history.
Comparisons to Hitler, even acknowledging the dictator's initial (and very short-lived) populist approach, conveniently omit that it was the Nazis who violently broke up demonstrations—just as the anti-Trump forces are doing today. Full marks if you recognize the delicious irony of former Nazi kapo George Soros being the guy behind the anti-Trump thugs.
Also pathetic are the techniques used by the elites in their vain attempts to undermine Trump. First off, it was the media in the person of the supposedly "beloved" Megyn Kelly going after him in the debates. But...horror of horrors...he answered back! Why, the Donald must have missed the memo whereby the media fawns over Dems and relentlessly attacks most Republicans, although those on Team R are never supposed to fight back.
Of course, her gambit backfired, and Megyn was exposed to be little more than the liberal lawyer with a nose and boob job and non-seductive low voice, that she always was.
Next, Trump dissed John McCain, which was going to be another kiss of death...only those in the know were already quite aware that Johnny's military record was not exactly spotless. Sure enough, more damaging material immediately appeared online, and the elites failed again.
Then there were the silly David Duke/racism slurs, and the utterly shameless spectacle of loser Mitt Romney channeling his late, unlamented father, in attacking the leading Republican candidate. Father George made an even worse speech concerning Barry Goldwater.
Trump is simply tapping into the serious anger that a sizable number of Americans have toward the elite political class—in both parties—that have sold them out.
How far back does this go? Well, it depends on your personal preferences. There was surely a Hell of a lot of anger toward Lincoln, as he lined up his fellow Americans to kill each other. Conveniently, the catastrophe of the Civil War gets played these days as a civil rights issue, even though that spin only occurred to Lincoln himself very late in the game.
Then, there was Woodrow Wilson (a big time racist, by the way), who promised to keep us out of war, but then pledged American lives in the absolutely pointless venture of World War I, which would inevitably lead to World War II.
The Great Depression brought us one of our all time worst presidents: Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
How bad were the Republicans during FDR's reign? This bad: It was no secret to Team R just how deceitful this man was. You think Obama lies? FDR told more lies in a month than Obama will in his entire career. Yet, they nominated a succession of RINOs to run against him.
1936 was pretty much the height of the Depression. We were not at war yet, and FDR was as vulnerable as he would ever be. So...they put up super RINO and closet Leftie Alf Landon, who got crushed.
In 1940, things were different. FDR was running for an unprecedented third term, did not end the Depression, and was saber-rattling. Businessman and former Democrat Wendell Willkie said all the right things, and even got FDR to tell the biggest lie of his life—that there would be no foreign wars if he were reelected. Alas, with lock-step support of the unions and corrupt big city machines, not to mention a weird combination of Southern racists and minorities, FDR got it done once again. To no one's surprise, after the election, Willkie showed his RINO true colors.
1944 was a problem. Had the Republican elite allowed Thomas Dewey to go public with his knowledge that FDR knew in advance of the Pearl Harbor attack, he just might have won. He did come closer than anyone else. As it was, by 1944, FDR was a walking dead man, and died only a few months after starting his fourth term, bringing us the lousy Harry Truman. People seem to forget that Truman left office with an approval rating in the 20-percent level. In the 1980s, there was a dumb attempt to rehabilitate this loser, which bombed once it was revealed that he was a Commie sympathizer and a racist.
In 1948, Dewey would get another chance, and should have destroyed Truman, only he didn't—running one of the most inept campaigns in American history. Being a RINO at heart, he did almost no real campaigning, and discussed none of the big issues of the day—such as how we won the war, but were losing the peace—and lost the most pivotal election of the 20th century.
In 1952, the RINOs were in full force, bringing us two terms of the awful Dwight Eisenhower, who was probably Stalin's best friend, after FDR. Eisenhower would never have gotten the nomination without Dewey's help.
Give this to Barry Goldwater: He had no chance in 1964, but he could certainly see the way the winds were blowing. The despicable LBJ put FDR's welfare state on steroids, opened up immigration in 1965, and gave us Vietnam—for good measure.
SO...Since 1936, with the exception of Reagan, the elites have brought us endless war, ruined our economy by sending jobs off to China and Mexico, and stood idly by—and even helped—as the Dems obliterated everything that used to define America. Remember religion, morality, factories, low unemployment, low taxes? Cherished institutions laid waste because of decades of abysmal, if not traitorous "leadership"—often reflecting tragically misguided and puerile social engineering.
In short, the time has long past in which we must respect such "leaders" merely because they attained positions of leadership.
Just a few of the reasons behind the Trump phenomenon.